Old English literature

Old English literature (or Anglo-Saxon literature) encompasses literature written in Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) in Anglo-Saxon England, in the period from the 7th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others.[1] In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the period, a significant corpus of both popular interest and specialist research.[1]Among the most important works of this period is the poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in England.[1] The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle otherwise proves significant to study of the era, preserving a chronology of early English history, while the poem Cędmon's Hymn from the 7th century survives as the oldest extant work of literature in English.[1]